Soulcalibur II (PlayStation 2)

Soulcalibur II
Developer: Project Soul Publisher: Namco Platform: PlayStation 2 Released in JP: March 27, 2003 Released in US: August 27, 2003 Released in EU: September 26, 2003 This game has unused playable characters. This game has unused music. This game has unused sounds. This game has regional differences.

Soulcalibur II is the multiplatform, graphically spiced-up sequel to the most critically-acclaimed fighting game of all-time, reintroducing multiple weapons akin to Soul Blade along with including console-exclusive guest characters.

To do: There is allegedly an unused graphic taken directly from an obscure manga hidden within the game, as well as an old "boss" graphic for dungeons.

Unused Text

Missing Character References

Leftover data exists for Link and Spawn, characters which were exclusive to the GameCube and Xbox ports respectively. This isn't exactly rare, as multiplatform games tend to have the data for all versions present in their code.

DUMMY

Multiple "DUMMY" strings are spliced in with the character data in "ROOT.OLK". These seem to be mere placeholder strings, but they also imply that more characters were planned for the game but never made it in.

Unused Audio

Narrator Commentary

A surprisingly large amount of audio files intended to be used by the narrator were recorded but never implemented. Most of these were simply amazingly obvious, made redundant by text or audio, or were ultimately deemed unnecessary, but a few of these prove quite intriguing.

Possibly a leftover from the "Conquest" mode exclusive to arcade versions of the game, which used a class system very similar to the one used in Weapon Master mode. It may also have been intended for Weapon Master itself.

Similarly to what was mentioned above, this clip could have either been a Conquest leftover, or directly intended for Weapon Master.

The same as above, only this time it pertains to failing a mission as opposed to succeeding.

An audio clip telling you that you are approaching a dungeon, usually placed at the end of chapters in Weapon Master. Because Namco thought it wouldn't be clear enough that you're entering a dungeon without the narrator telling you directly.

In a similar vein to all of the accompanying clips above, this audio clip was intended for Weapon Master to accompany your clearing of a dungeon.

Would obviously play whenever you cleared a chapter in Weapon Master. Considering that one can complete a chapter without clearing all of the missions within it, in addition to how you have to replay all of the chapters in an increased difficulty after completing Chapter 9, the definition of "clear" may have proved too vague to define, hence the removal of this clip.

Would've played upon unlocking something. "Feature" may have pertained to an "Extra" mode or to an art or weapon gallery.

Would have played upon unlocking a hidden character. It may have also been used for time-release characters in arcade versions.

Unlocking a new stage would at one point be accompanied by the Narrator commending you on your achievement.

This clip would have been used very often had it been used in-game, as the vast majority of the weapons need to be purchased in shops, and very few are unlocked via simply playing through Weapon Master.

May have played upon unlocking an optional mission within a chapter, or possibly when one unlocks an optional chapter.

A series trademark which rather unusually never plays once in the game. If series continuity is anything to go by, this famous audio clip would've played on the character select screen.

One of two quotes which would play upon winning a round in both Soul Blade and Soulcalibur, retained verbatim, yet again, never played in-game. The lack of a name being mentioned at the end of the clip is deliberate, just as in previous games, and would've been filled in by whoever was victorious.

The second quote which would've played post-victory. Note that no equivalent "losing" quote exists on the disc, implying that the idea of retaining these quotes was scrapped relatively early.

The final series trademark quote rendered unused in the game, this would've played upon obtaining a Game Over or clearing Arcade Mode.

Too vague to discern any sort of context.

Very likely to have been used as a "prelude" quote before battling Inferno, likely in Weapon Master mode.

Another quote likely intended for Weapon Master, which perhaps might have seen use at the end of Chapter 9, after which one must redo each chapter with more difficult missions in place.

Unused Music

A leftover from the arcade version, this rather unnerving audio was accompanied by a CG shot of the corrupted Soul Calibur glowing ominously before cutting to the title screen. Obviously, this was replaced with the CG intro made specifically for the console release and the Arcade Intro itself was now an unlockable movie but rendered in FMV.

The Weapon Master "success" fanfare in a marginally lower pitch.

Same as above, only this time it's a slightly extended version of the Game Over theme.

Three short fanfares which were used in arcade versions of the game in "Conquest" Mode, which was, for all intents and purposes, a continuously-looping "claim as much of the map as possible!" mode in which your characters could be upgraded with fully customisable stats as you won more fights and claimed more spots on the map. As this stat system was instead used for the trademark multiple weapons system, Conquest Mode was cut in console ports (likely due to being made redundant, with Weapon Master giving you the experience, and the variable choices of weapons applying the stat changes), and thus these associated fanfares are all rendered unused in-game.

Another unused fanfare, slightly longer than the three compiled above, is located separately with Weapon Master-related themes but yet again has a rather ambiguous purpose. It does sound rather similar to the Weapon Master "success" fanfare, though...

A miscellaneous... beeping sound. May have been a placeholder for existing menu sounds.

Test Stage

A normally inaccessible stage, presumably used to test game mechanics and stage boundaries, can be accessed through the use of hacking devices. It appears to resemble an incredibly primitive build of the Imperial Capital Ayutthaya stage, with much of the same architecture in lower detail and partially transparent walls. Strangely, though the walls around the stage are functional and act exactly as they should, the ability to ring-out a foe was not programmed for this stage.

Unused Characters

To do: Get some higher-quality videos.

Similarly to the arcade Tekken 3, placeholder data for two unused characters can be accessed through cheat codes, but they use pre-existing character models, movesets, and weapon models. They occupy slots that are taken by the other two console-exclusive characters (in the other versions, Heihachi's slot only has Cassandra's model but with Heihachi's nametag).

• Wovama uses Cassandra's model, utilizing the 1P costume. She uses Nightmare's moveset with Kulutues (Astaroth's weapon). Wovama's name in-game is blank.
  • A character named Wovama was advertised for Soulcalibur II very early on in the August 2001 issue of Electronic Gaming Monthly, although details on the character were minimal, only describing her as "a young blonde female warrior", and displayed no hint as to her weapon, appearance, or other traits. This slot is Link in the Gamecube version, but Wovama in PS2 and Xbox versions.
• Q.Takagi uses Cassandra's model, utilizing the 2P costume. She uses Mitsurugi's moveset with Kali-Yuga (Kilik's weapon). Using her in a mode where the character's name is visible will show Spawn's name in either PS2 or Gamecube version. In Xbox, this slot is taken by Spawn himself.
  • The name "Takagi" curiously appears to have been taken directly from the name of Cassandra's seiyuu Reiko Takagi, who voiced the character in Japanese versions of the game, potentially explaining why the string loads Cassandra's model.

It is not known why such a bizarre combination of character pieces were assembled in this way, but it's clear the characters were scrapped fairly early in development, with only their names remaining in the code. Alternatively, they only exist to fill character slots in each version of the game for the console-exclusive characters not available.

Regional Differences

The European version had some changes made from the US/Japanese versions:

• Extra costumes were added for some of the characters.
• Three characters who were previously CPU-only can now be unlocked: Assassin, Berserker, and Lizardman.
• The move properties for some of the characters were changed. Most notably, Ivy became significantly stronger.